It seems that while there a a million cool technologies out there, students are repeatedly doing the same powerpoint over and over again. This is my first attempt to model a new way for a student to do a common project in a way that gets them out of the 'power point-posterboard' loop.
For this project, I took the simple and typical project of practicing the guitar and turned into a mini-documentary about my experience. The idea for doing this came from a similar experiment I did in a philosophy course back when I first started playing. In the original project, I used a tape recorder (remember them?) to record myself periodically as I learned to play "Patience" by Guns and Roses. At the end of the project, I listened to the tape filled with my ideas, mistakes, and triumphs, and then reflected on how the recording process influenced my practice. I found it both rewarding therefore motivating to be able to actually here my improvements over time.
I have taken that idea and expanded on it further using the iLife software that comes standard with my Macbook. There is software available for PC's that allow you to do similar things, but the integration of video and audio editing is part of what makes the Macbook the ultimate project-based computer.
Anyway, the final video is not meant to be perfection, but is merely intended to demonstrate an easy way that students can better demonstrate their learning, while also improving secondary technology skills in the process. As a cautionary measure, I must warn you that I sing in this video, which was a very scary/embarrassing thing for me, proving that you can still stretch your limits through PBL at my age!
If you have any technical questions about how to make a movie, or about using Google Video to post to this wiki, email me at nryan@newcountryschool.com
For this project, I took the simple and typical project of practicing the guitar and turned into a mini-documentary about my experience. The idea for doing this came from a similar experiment I did in a philosophy course back when I first started playing. In the original project, I used a tape recorder (remember them?) to record myself periodically as I learned to play "Patience" by Guns and Roses. At the end of the project, I listened to the tape filled with my ideas, mistakes, and triumphs, and then reflected on how the recording process influenced my practice. I found it both rewarding therefore motivating to be able to actually here my improvements over time.
I have taken that idea and expanded on it further using the iLife software that comes standard with my Macbook. There is software available for PC's that allow you to do similar things, but the integration of video and audio editing is part of what makes the Macbook the ultimate project-based computer.
Anyway, the final video is not meant to be perfection, but is merely intended to demonstrate an easy way that students can better demonstrate their learning, while also improving secondary technology skills in the process. As a cautionary measure, I must warn you that I sing in this video, which was a very scary/embarrassing thing for me, proving that you can still stretch your limits through PBL at my age!
If you have any technical questions about how to make a movie, or about using Google Video to post to this wiki, email me at nryan@newcountryschool.com